March 30, 2009

Hell has officially frozen over—Lucero frontman Ben Nichols is now an actor.

MTV has developed a new series based around the Memphis music scene called $5 Cover, and Nichols has landed the leading role. Appropriately enough, the smokey-voiced singer will play himself—in fact, other Memphis artists will also have cameos, with each episode culminating in a live performance at a crucial Memphis venue.

This isn’t too terribly weird when one considers that Lucero has been receiving more attention lately. That added to the fact that the band obviously has a penchant for cinema (they have two very awesome documentaries out there) means that this should make sense, but c’mon…MTV? Really?

Anyways, for what it’s worth the show looks pretty rad. The dialogue is apparently improvised for the most part to give the show a more realistic feel, and to accurately portray the Memphis music scene. No word yet on when the show will start airing or exactly how many episodes Nichols is actually in (he is listed as the “main love interest”), but I’ll be sure to keep you posted.

There is a cool teaser clip on the page featuring behind the scenes banter with Ben. Check it out here.